The Dukes An Alternate Universe
by star1kings
Summary: This is the first story in the alternate universe story line. Bo is very different than his character in the television show. This story takes place in April of 1975, one week before the Vietnam war ended. In this story, Luke is sent to Bo's unit to help free a P.O.W. camp, things don't go as planned.


This is an alternate universe. Bo is older than Luke and was drafted into the Vietnam war in June of 1974. He was in Vietnam for 9 months, he was sent over the end of July. Luke arrived at the base in April 1975. He had been in Vietnam for two weeks, he was transfered to Bo's unit one week before the US was to pull out of Vietnam. Word got out that the US was getting out of Vietnam by April 30th. They had one last mission, to free a P.O.W. camp.

The Sergeant was showing Luke around the base when a young man approached.  
"Sir? We're all back. Saved ten."  
"Frank?"  
"No, sir. Looked like he was dead for awhile. We brought his body back tho."  
"Thanks. Listen, why don't y'all get some rest."  
"Yes, sir." Fred than looked at Luke. "New guy?" The Sergeant nodded.  
"Name's Lukas Duke." Luke said as he shook Fred's hand.  
"Wow! There's two of you now?" When Luke gave him a confused look, Fred looked around and saw Bo standing by a jeep.  
"Hey, Duke!" Fred yelled and waved Bo over. Bo was talking to another man and he looked over when he heard his name called.  
"See ya later, Jake." Bo told the man he was talking to.  
"See ya, Bo." Jake patted Bo's shoulder than Bo made his way over. Bo had a cigarette dangling from his mouth. His rifle was slung over his left shoulder. He had aviator sunglasses on and shaggy long hair. Longer than he ever wore it. In fact, it was longer than the regulation cut. As he got closer he took his sunglasses off and put them on top of his head. Before he reached Luke, he took one last drag from his cigarette and flicked it away.  
"Hey, Luke." Bo smiled as Luke put out his hand. Bo shook Luke's hand, than pulled him into a hug.  
"How ya doin', Bo?"  
"I'm fine. Why are you here?"  
"Sent over to help on one last mission before we leave." Bo gave Luke a confussed look.  
"Luke, Lieutenant Duke and his men have been out in the field for awhile. They haven't gotten the news." The Sergeant told him.  
"What news?"  
"We're pullin' out. All units must be out by the end of the month. We got one last mission to free POW's in a camp near Hanoi." Bo nodded and looked at Luke.  
"How's everyone doin'?"  
"They're all doin' good. Vance and Coy are helpin' them out 'til we get back." Luke just stared at Bo for a minute, making Bo uncomfortable.  
"What?"  
"New look?" Bo shrugged.  
"Sarge lets me get away with it."  
"Only because you now out-rank me and because you're the best snipper we have." The Sergeant replied as Bo only grinned. "Come on Duke, don't be so modest. He's got 98 confirmed kills, 130 that we counted. He does this thing to the bottom of his boots, can literally climb trees like it was nothing."  
"I out-rank you on paper only. You're still in charge of us." The Sergeant nodded than continued. "I need 3 men to do our final mission. The rest will pack up and ship out." Sergeant Lee looked at Bo who simply nodded.  
"Fred?" Fred nodded as well.  
"I'll go." The Sergeant looked at Luke.  
"You sure, son? You got nothing to prove here, no one will think less of you if you were to stay."  
"I'm sure." Not knowing that they were related, the Sergeant looked at Bo and told him.  
"Duke, you take him." Than he looked at Luke. "You stay by his side. Do everything that he says and I mean everything! You understand me?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Sarge, that's his cousin." The Sergeant looked at both of them and asked. "Is this going to be a problem?"  
"No, sir." Luke replied.  
"Nope."  
"All right. Everyone get some rest. I'll wake you at 21hundred." He looked at Bo than replied. "9 o'clock." Bo nodded and was about to leave when Sarge grabbed his arm.  
"Hold up, Duke."  
"Go on ahead, Luke. I'll meet up with you." When the others were out of ear shot, the Sergeant continued. "Fred told me what happened. You gonna be alright going out?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Bo." The Sergeant put his hand on Bo's shoulder. "I'm asking as a friend now, not your Sergeant."  
"I'll be fine. It looked like Frank had been dead for awhile. When he first took off I blamed myself for not keeping a closer eye on him. Now I know there was nothing I could have done to stop him."  
"What changed?"  
"Had a lot of time to think about it."  
"Your idea to take the body?"  
"Yeah, couldn't leave him there. His family deserves better."  
"You're a good man, Duke." Bo smiled. "Go on and get some rest." Bo nodded and walked to Luke who was waiting for him by the barracks.  
"You changed." Luke told Bo.  
"What you mean?"  
"Your hair is longer, you smoke and you look like you gained 20 pounds in muscle. Before you were tall and wirey. Now, I don't think I would even mess with ya."  
"I won't smoke around you if you don't want me to. It's just a stress reliever. Besides, I haven't changed all that much. I still love the person I left back in Hazzard." Luke smiled.  
"You really that good?" Luke pointed at the rifle Bo was holding.  
"Unfortunately. Got three more this morning."  
"101 offical?"  
"Yup. 133 we counted. How many you got?"  
"Five."  
"Not bad."  
"Come on, cuz. I'll show you where you can sleep. We got a long night ahead of us." They walked into the barracks and Bo pointed to a empty cot.  
"You can use this one. Don't worry, guy was sent home. Wasn't killed."  
"Good." Luke smiled and sat onto the cot. He watched as Bo took off his side arm and set his rifle next to his cot. He noticed that Bo had two KaBars, one was horizontal on his belt in the middle of his back. The other was on his right side strapped to his leg. Bo laid down on his cot and quickly fell asleep. Luke laid down as well but had a hard time falling asleep.  
Nine o'clock came all too soon and the Sergeant walked in to wake the three. He shook Luke's foot and made sure he woke up before he moved on. Luke noticed that the Sergeant bypassed Bo and woke up Fred. Luke watched as the Sergeant took the rifle and side arm that Bo had near him before he shook Bo's foot. Bo woke up startled and looked around for his guns.  
"Hey, Duke. It's me, Sergeant Lee." Bo looked at Sergeant Lee than he sat up and put his feet onto the floor. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and nodded.  
"You alright?"  
"Yeah. Thanks." He put on his boots and stood up. Once the Sergeant was sure that Bo was fully awake, he gave him his side arm and rifle.  
"Meet you by the Jeep." Bo nodded and went to use the latrine. He bascially forgot that Luke was there. Didn't even notice that Luke was sitting on the cot. Luke thought that was strange but he figured Bo had a bad morning and a lot on his mind.  
As Luke was walking towards the Jeep, Fred approached him.  
"Hey, Duke! Hold up!" Fred ran up to Luke as Luke turned towards the source of his name.  
"Heard you two grew up together?"  
"Yeah."  
"Has he always been this intence?"  
"What'd ya mean?"  
"Very quiet." Luke started to laugh.  
"Bo, quiet? That's hard to believe. Back home he was always talking, could never get him to shut up."  
"Yeah, quiet. One hell of a guy, saved our asses more than once. He once took out 30 V.C. by himself. That's how he got to become a second Lieutenant, battle field commission."  
"Really?"  
"He never told you?"  
"Nope." Luke shook his head.  
"Huh. I hope he hasn't changed too much."  
"Me too."  
"Come on, let's see what he came up with." They both walked up to where Bo was standing. He had laid out a map onto the hood of a Jeep and was talking to the Sergeant.  
As Bo lite up a cigarette he grinned. "Looks like he has an idea." Fred told Luke. As Bo was talking Luke was impressed with his plan. Back home Bo wasn't very book smart in school but here, he was different.  
"Let's roll out." The Sergeant told everyone. Bo looked to his left and noticed that Luke was standing there. At first he was confused than he remembered the events of the morning.  
"Hey, Luke. Didn't see ya." Luke could tell that Bo seemed confused.  
"You ok?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thought I dreamed that you were here." Bo whispered the last part so only Luke could hear. Bo looked Luke over.  
"You got everything you need? Enough ammo? Grenades?" Before Bo could name off everything, Luke put his hand onto Bo's arm.  
"Bo, I got everything. Don't worry, alright?"  
"Sorry, just don't want anything to go wrong."  
"Come on, Bo. Best get going." Bo nodded and followed Luke to the chopper. The chopper flew several miles and landed in a field. They walked through the jungle for several miles and came close to the camp.  
Bo pointed to where he was going and he climbed a tree, that was about a mile away from the camp. Once he was set, the other men went ahead and waited for his signal. Bo took careful aim and took out four guards. Since he had a silencer on his rifle, the other guards had no idea what was headed their way. Bo gave the signal and the men went into the camp. They took out eight more guards than searched the heavily damaged buildings and found 6 men. Fred and Sergeant Lee helped two men that were wounded, while the other four could walk out on their own. Luke was behind them as a look out. Bo still waited in the tree that was ahead of them, just in case they needed back up.  
Everything went smoothly until they were about a half mile away from the camp. Luke heard a noise from behind him. Before he could do anything he was jumped, the rifle falling to the ground. Charlie slammed Luke's head against ground several times. The other men upfront continued their way to the chopper as Fred went back to help Luke.  
The young V.C. out of desperation, pulled a semi conscious Luke up and used him as cover. Fred pointed the rifle at them, but Luke was taller than the other man so Fred couldn't get a clean shot. Since Bo was in a better position to get a clean shot, he took aim and shot Luke in the left leg. When Luke fell, Bo shot Charlie in the head.  
Bo got down from the tree as Fred held a cloth to Luke's leg to stop the bleeding.  
"You shot me! I can't believe you shot me!" Luke whispered to Bo.  
"Sorry about that. Only way to save your life." Bo looked at the wound than responded. "Don't worry Luke, you'll live." Bo patted Luke's right leg and smiled.  
"Come on, cuz." He picked up Luke in a fireman's carry as Fred took their rifles. They made it to the chopper that was waiting for them in a clearing.  
They made their way to the base and then they were headed to a field hospital. After that they would be sent to Da Nang than home. ^^Note. I have no idea if that was the way it was done, I'm just making that part up.^^

^^^At the hospital in Da Nang^^^

Bo stood by the door looking in at Luke.  
"You going in?" Asked Jake (the chopper pilot).  
"Was thinkin' about it."  
"He ain't gonna blame you, you know? It was the only way to save him and the others."  
"I know that, does he?"  
"Yeah Bo, I do." They looked at Luke surprised he was awake.  
"Sorry for wakin' ya."  
"Wasn't really sleeping."  
"I'll leave you two be. Glad your okay, Lukas." Jake patted Bo's shoulder. "I'll see you in about an hour." Bo nodded than walked into Luke's room.  
"Small world, ain't it?"  
"What you mean, Bo?" Luke rubbed his eyes, than looked at a confussed Bo.  
"Jake Johnson. You know our neighbor from Hazzard? He was the chopper pilot that pulled us out."  
"His voice did sound familar. Sorry, was kind of out of it."  
"Sorry about that." Bo pointed to Luke's leg.  
"Don't worry about it. Just glad you're a good shot."  
"We're leaving for the States in an hour. Should be home in a couple days, maybe a week."  
"Good."  
"Ya know there are 3 other guys from Hazzard over here, besides us and Jake?"  
"No, I didn't."  
"We're all meeting at the airport. Jake is coming back in an hour with our stuff." They talked for awhile than got ready for Jake to pick them up. Everything went smoothly and they got back to Hazzard several days later.  
When they got to the Hazzard bus depot they were greeted by many people, including their large family. There was a parade and a small fair. Word around the town was that this would be an annual event, call Hazzard Homecoming. People were also talking about a road race next year. Top prize was rumored to be ten thousand dollars.  
After the events of the day were over, Mrs. Hogg walked up to Luke and Bo.  
"Glad you two are home and well." Mrs. Lulu Hogg told them as she hugged them both.  
"Thanks Miss Lulu." Bo told her after she got done hugging him.  
"Lets head home, huh Luke?"  
"Yeah."  
"Bye, Miss Lulu." Lulu smiled as she waved goodbye. They made their way to an orange 1969 Dodge Charger that Bo had bought the year before he went to war.  
"So, you think we would have a chance of winning an overland race?" Luke asked as Bo made his way to Route 24.  
"Sure we do. Let's just work on the engine and suspension. We know the roads well enough. Hell, if we can outrun the revenuers, we can win a race." They made the rest of the way home in silence. Bo put the General into the barn and they got their bags out of the trunk.  
"I'm glad Cooter brought the General to town."  
"Me too, Luke." Bo stopped walking as he got out of the barn and just looked around. He breathed in the country air and smiled.  
"God, it's good to be home." Several minutes later they heard a car pull up. Coy was driving with Vance sitting shotgun. Daisy and Jesse were sitting in the back. The rest of their family was already home in bed.  
"Hey guys." Bo smiled as they all got out of the car.  
"So, um. Where are we going to sleep?" Bo asked Jesse.  
"In your room of course."  
"What about Coy and Vance?"  
"We got sleeping bags. We can sleep on the floor or one on the couch."  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah, Bo. We're sure." Vance spoke for both of them. Jesse walked towards the house.  
"Come on, let's get to bed." They all went inside and got ready for bed. Bo and Luke went to their old bedroom that they shared since they were kids. Luke noticed that Bo still had his KaBar on his belt. Bo took it off and set it next to his boots, just within arms reach.  
"Bo, listen we're safe here. You don't need to sleep with that near you." Bo looked at the knife than Luke.  
"Force of habit, I guess." Luke walked up to Bo and held out his hand. Bo nodded and gave Luke the KaBar. Luke put it in the dresser drawer along with his dog tags. Bo left his dog tags on; and would continue to wear them for decades later.

^^Note: This story line will continue on in upcoming stories.^^


End file.
